She is one of the most solvent women on the planet. Her fortune is estimated at 25 billion dollars. Interestingly, Laurene Powell Jobs does not care about money. She married Steve Jobs in 1991, but she was already a wealthy figure in the financial field and very relevant in the intellectual circuit.
Born in 1963 in West Milford, New Jersey, Powell holds degrees in economics and political science from the University of Pennsylvania and As soon as he finished his Masters, he was already working on Wall Street for Goldman Sachs. He co-founded the food company Terravera, founded the College Track initiative, and traveled across North America giving lectures and symposia.
Laurene Powell Jobs’ humanitarian causes
And at one of those public lectures, at a Stanford conference in 1989, he sat down next to a quiet man he didn’t know. They struck up a conversation until he had to go on stage. It was Steve Jobs, guest speaker. It didn’t take long for them to fall in love and two years later their first daughter together would be born.
And so it went, until Steve Jobs’ final days in 2011. His death led to Laurene inheriting the Steven P. Jobs Trust, which at the time held nearly 40 million shares of Apple stock and 7.3% of Walt Disney Company, shares valued at $10 billion. And what do you do with so much money? She gave lectures. This is where a new philanthropic project was born with the idea of making such a vast inheritance profitable.
When she inherited this fortune, Laurene was clear on one thing: philanthropy. Invest, donate, and help. “I’m not interested in building on the legacy of a legacy.” As she had already done with College Track, her bet was to continue her own story, without resorting to a single dollar from her late husband. “If I live long enough, this legacy will end with me,” he would go so far as to say in an interview where he estimates donate $3.5 billion over the next decade.
Among all the charitable projects she is involved in, the Emerson Collective and the Waverley Street Foundation stand out. The first focuses on a scholarship system for groups at risk of exclusion. The second focuses on mitigating and minimizing the causes of climate change. on disadvantaged groups, promoting the preservation of natural spaces and investing in education and research. In fact, Laurene is an active member of the Climate Leadership Council.
As she recalls in her interview with the New York Times: “I inherited my wealth from my husband, who did not hesitate to accumulate it. I do this in honor of your work. and I have dedicated my life to doing everything I can to distribute it effectively, helping people and communities in a sustainable way.” One of the fifty richest women on the planet wants to stop being rich for the right reasons.
Cover | Flickr, originally from UNclimatechange.
An older version of this article was originally published on 08/08/2023.
In Applesfera | He created the most famous game in the world, but the Soviets didn’t pay him for it. Today, he’s a millionaire with a story so beautiful that Apple decided to make a movie about it
In Applesfera | Steve Jobs bought a Spanish colonial-style mansion to demolish it. And so began a legal hell that lasted more than 20 years.
